Source: Forbes
Meet the influencer, your new top salesperson. As Instagram becomes more streamlined for fashion and advertising, influencers become top dog in communicating to consumers.
What You Need to Know:
92% of consumers will believe an influencer over traditional advertising or celebrity endorsements.
Instagram story links from influencers have seen 15-25% conversion rates (read more about the power of Instagram stories here).
When consumers see a video about a product they are 64% more likely to purchase that product, making Instagram stories a gold mine of potential.
Instagram has made it easier for brands to have consumers click and buy without having to leave the app.
Photo courtesy of Pretty Little Fawn
The Rest
Before Instagram, QVC was the network that made it easy to call and buy products. Now Instagram has made it easier for brands to have consumers click and buy without having to leave the app. This is a huge move for Instagram to appeal to brands and provide more data about how campaigns are performing. All the data that has been holding your brand back from testing social media driven advertising is now at your fingertips. With the ability to see the conversion rate on the application can provide hard data that will provide valuable feedback.
Influencers only make these new developments open even more doors for your brand. Since 92% of consumers trust them over other forms of advertising, they can bring authenticity to your brand. Their Instagram Stories have thousands of views, which can easily be traced back to your brand. All the data from their campaigns can be provided back to your brand on how their images and videos performed.
Moral of the Story
If data was holding you back from investing in social media campaigns, your problems have been solved! Instagram has become a marketplace that is friendly to your brand, consumers, and business partners. Bringing in influencers can drive conversion and bring value to your brand with data to back it up. Leaving Instagram and influencers out of your marketing plan cuts your brand out of valuable opportunities.
Little tip from the Top
Still skeptical about influencer marketing? Time to give that up!
Embrace the influencer, and embrace the viability of Instagram and Instagram Stories as a marketing tool. While your brand won’t be in complete creative control, it brings a real voice to your audience that consumers trust. As Annabel Anton, founder & CEO of Never Liked It Anyway, puts it: “… influencers are more open to posting branded Instagram Stories over a traditional post. They see the ephemeral nature of Stories as a way to engage in real time, and critically, they do not clutter up their feed and make them look exclusively like a brand’s puppet.”